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Four Idolatrous Gods In The Book Of Abraham, John Gee Jan 2020

Four Idolatrous Gods In The Book Of Abraham, John Gee

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Although unknown as deities in Joseph Smith’s day, the names of four associated idolatrous gods (Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah, and Korash) mentioned in the Book of Abraham are attested anciently. Two of them are known to have connections with the practices attributed to them in the Book of Abraham. The odds of Joseph Smith guessing the names correctly is astronomical.

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Where Did The Names Mahaway And Mahujah Come From? A Response To Colby Townsend’S “Returning To The Sources,” Part 2 Of 2, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, Ryan Dahle Jan 2020

Where Did The Names Mahaway And Mahujah Come From? A Response To Colby Townsend’S “Returning To The Sources,” Part 2 Of 2, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, Ryan Dahle

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In the present article, Part 2 of 2 of a set of articles supporting Colby Townsend’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of textual criticism, we focus on his argument that Joseph Smith created the Book of Moses names Mahijah and Mahujah after seeing a table of name variants in the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:18 in a Bible commentary written by Adam Clarke. While we are not averse in principle to the general possibility that Joseph Smith may have relied on study aids as part of his translation of the Bible, we discuss why in this case such …

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The Importance Of Authorial Intention, Donald W. Parry Jan 2020

The Importance Of Authorial Intention, Donald W. Parry

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

It is important when evaluating the words of others to consider the intention of their writing. It also does not hurt to consider what may go on behind the scenes before an article (or a book review) even reaches a particular readership.

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“To Seek The Law Of The Lord”, James R. Rasband, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2020

“To Seek The Law Of The Lord”, James R. Rasband, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This prefatory material to the festschrift for John W. Welch gives an overview of his exceptional life, full of variety and intensity. As James R. Rasband writes: “His candle burns bright whatever the project.” Hoskisson and Peterson characterize “Jack” as a “polymath” as they give a thumbnail sketch of the history of FARMS (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies), which he founded and of the book which honors his numerous contributions. A final contribution to this installment provides a useful collection of highlights of his personal and professional life.

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Theories And Assumptions: A Review Of William L. Davis’S Visions In A Seer Stone, Brian C. Hales Jan 2020

Theories And Assumptions: A Review Of William L. Davis’S Visions In A Seer Stone, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Within the genre of Book of Mormon studies, William L. Davis’s Visions in a Seer Stone presents readers with an innovative message that reports how Joseph Smith was able to produce the words of the Book of Mormon without supernatural assistance. Using oral performance skills that Smith ostensibly gained prior to 1829, his three-month “prodigious flow of verbal art and narrative creation” (7) became the Book of Mormon. Davis’s theory describes a two-part literary pattern in the Book of Mormon where summary outlines (called “heads) in the text are consistently expanded in subsequent sections of the narrative. Termed “laying down …

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Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, And Toads: Joseph Smith’S Reported Use Of Entheogens, Brian C. Hales Jan 2020

Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, And Toads: Joseph Smith’S Reported Use Of Entheogens, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

An article recently published in an online journal entitled “The Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism: A Working Hypothesis” posits that Joseph Smith used naturally occurring chemicals, called “entheogens,” to facilitate visionary experiences among his early followers. The entheogenic substances were reportedly derived from two mushrooms, a fungus, three plants (including one cactus), and the secretions from the parotid glands of the Sonoran Desert toad. Although it is an intriguing theory, the authors consistently fail to connect important dots regarding chemical and historical cause-and-effect issues. Documentation of entheogen acquisition and consumption by the early Saints is not provided, but consistently speculated. Equally, …

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“I Of Myself Am A Wicked Man”: Some Notes On Allusion And Textual Dependency In Omni 1:1-2, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2020

“I Of Myself Am A Wicked Man”: Some Notes On Allusion And Textual Dependency In Omni 1:1-2, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Omni greatly revered his ancestors and their personal accounts on the small plates of Nephi. A close examination of Omni’s brief autobiography (Omni 1:1–3) evidences borrowing from all four of his predecessors’ writings. Moreover, his self-description, “I of myself am a wicked man,” constitutes far more than a confession of religious dereliction. That self-assessment alludes to Nephi’s autobiographical wordplay on his name in terms “good” and “having been born of goodly parents” and his grandfather Enos’s similarly self-referential wordplay in describing his own father Jacob as a “just man.” Omni’s name most likely represents a hypocoristic form of a longer …

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The Oxford Handbook Of Ecclesiology [Review] / Avis, Paul, Ed., Denis Fortin Jan 2020

The Oxford Handbook Of Ecclesiology [Review] / Avis, Paul, Ed., Denis Fortin

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

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The Demise Of The American Holiness Movement : A Historical, Theological, Biblical, And Cultural Exploration, Darius L. Salter Jan 2020

The Demise Of The American Holiness Movement : A Historical, Theological, Biblical, And Cultural Exploration, Darius L. Salter

Academic Books

No abstract provided.

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Notes On Book Of Mormon Heads, Stephen O. Smoot Jan 2020

Notes On Book Of Mormon Heads, Stephen O. Smoot

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This paper looks at the two types of heads used in the Book of Mormon. It argues against a recent theory that these heads served as mnemonic cues that enabled Joseph Smith to extemporaneously compose and dictate the text. Instead, it argues that the function and form of heads in the Book of Mormon finds ancient precedent in Egyptian literary culture and scribal practice. A brief addendum on the ancient precedent for the chapter breaks in the original text of the Book of Mormon is also provided.

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Questioning The Mentality Behind Mark’S Gospel, Macy Mcdonald Jan 2020

Questioning The Mentality Behind Mark’S Gospel, Macy Mcdonald

Merge

No abstract provided.

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Answering The Critics In 44 Rebuttal Points, Brian D. Stubbs Jan 2020

Answering The Critics In 44 Rebuttal Points, Brian D. Stubbs

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

After publishing several articles in peer-reviewed journals, the author published Uto-Aztecan: A Comparative Vocabulary (2011), the new standard in comparative Uto-Aztecan, favorably reviewed1 and heartily welcomed by specialists in the field. Four years later, another large reference work, Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan (2015), was also favorably reviewed2 but not as joyfully welcomed among specialists as its predecessor. While some saw it as sound, more were silent. Some disliked the topic, but no one produced substantive refutations of it. In August 2019, Chris Rogers published a review,3 but John S. Robertson’s response to Rogers’s review4 …

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Is Decrypting The Genetic Legacy Of America’S Indigenous Populations Key To The Historicity Of The Book Of Mormon?, Ugo A. Perego, Jayne E. Ekins Jan 2020

Is Decrypting The Genetic Legacy Of America’S Indigenous Populations Key To The Historicity Of The Book Of Mormon?, Ugo A. Perego, Jayne E. Ekins

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Some critics of the Book of Mormon suppose that the DNA characteristics of modern Native Americans should be compatible with “Israelite” rather than with Asian genetics. The authors point out that while DNA is a valid tool to study ancient and modern populations, we must be careful about drawing absolute conclusions. They show that many of the conclusions of critics are based on unwarranted assumptions. There are specific limitations that cannot be ignored when using the available genetic data to infer conclusions regarding the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples. Such conclusions are not founded on solid science but are …

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Ayahuasca’S Religious Diaspora In The Wake Of The Doctrine Of Discovery, Roger K. Green Jan 2020

Ayahuasca’S Religious Diaspora In The Wake Of The Doctrine Of Discovery, Roger K. Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

‘Ayahuasca’ is a plant mixture with a variety of recipes and localized names native to South America. Often, the woody ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) is combined with chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis) in a tea, inducing psychedelic effects among its users. While social usage varies among Indigenous Peoples of South America, during the twentieth century new religious movements in Brazil began employing the mixture as religious sacrament. Additionally, various centers for ayahuasca “healing” have emerged both inside and outside of the Amazon Rainforest, frequently with the aim of helping people addicted to other substances. As interest grew, …

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"To Bloom In Empty Space": An Introduction And Commentary On The Petichta To Esther Rabbah, Ethan Nosanow Levin Jan 2020

"To Bloom In Empty Space": An Introduction And Commentary On The Petichta To Esther Rabbah, Ethan Nosanow Levin

Religious Studies Honors Projects

The petichta to Esther Rabbah (c. 6th century CE) reflects a pessimistic rabbinic response to the physical and theological displacement of the Jews in an increasingly Christianized Roman Palestine. Using the covenantal curses (specifically Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26) as a frame, the rabbis situate the book of Esther and their current socio-political context into the rabbinic paradigm of the Four Kingdoms, representative of ongoing imperial oppression. According to Esther Rabbah, Jews living under Roman rule–even those in Palestine–are living in a state of “exile” characterized by the ongoing impact of the covenantal curses. For the rabbis, Israel cannot …

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Seek Ye Words Of Wisdom, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, Shon D. Hopkin Jan 2020

Seek Ye Words Of Wisdom, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, Shon D. Hopkin

Interpreter Foundation Books

Stephen David Ricks is a professor of Hebrew and cognate learning in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he has taught for almost four decades (1981–). It was at BYU, in a freshman Book of Mormon class, that he first met Shirley Smith. Four years later, after they had both served German- speaking missions (Stephen in Switzerland and Shirley in Southern Germany), they were married in the Provo Utah Temple in 1974. They are now the proud parents of six children—three girls and three boys, all of whom are married—and have twenty …

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Some Notes On Joseph Smith And Adam Clarke, Kent P. Jackson Jan 2020

Some Notes On Joseph Smith And Adam Clarke, Kent P. Jackson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Authors of two recent articles believe they have found evidence that Joseph Smith, in preparing his revision of the Bible, drew ideas from a contemporary Bible commentary by British scholar Adam Clarke. The evidence, however, does not bear out this claim. I believe that none of the examples they provide can be traced to Clarke’s commentary, and almost all of them can be explained easily by other means. The authors do not look at their examples within the broader context of the revisions Joseph Smith made to the Bible, and thus they misinterpret them. Some of the revisions they attribute …

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Nephi’S Obsession, Or, How To Talk With Nephi About God, Ralph C. Hancock Jan 2020

Nephi’S Obsession, Or, How To Talk With Nephi About God, Ralph C. Hancock

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Joseph Spencer’s intimate familiarity with the Book of Mormon text, based upon years of close textual study and informed by a well- developed theological sensibility, is in full evidence in this lead-off volume in Neal A. Maxwell Institute’s new series of books on the various books of the Book of Mormon. Leaving to prophets and apostles the responsibility for “declaring official doctrine,” this new series approaches the book with the tools of the “scholarly practice” of theology. In Spencer’s case at least, his practice is understood to be (1) informed by an emphasis on grace that is skeptical of claims …

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Understanding Ritual Hand Gestures Of The Ancient World: Some Basic Tools, David Calabro Jan 2020

Understanding Ritual Hand Gestures Of The Ancient World: Some Basic Tools, David Calabro

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The ritual use of hand gestures in covenant-making in ancient times is a topic of peculiar interest to Latter-day Saints. In this article, David Calabro summarizes results drawn from his doctoral research, providing readers with some tools to evaluate ancient gestures. The questions he suggests are novel, as is the way they are couched in an organized scheme. The author concludes that Latter -day Saints, who belong to a tradition saturated with ritual gestures, should be among those most educated about them.

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Ezekiel's Priestly Imaginary: A Symbolic Or Idolatrous Reality?, Dale Launderville Osb Jan 2020

Ezekiel's Priestly Imaginary: A Symbolic Or Idolatrous Reality?, Dale Launderville Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

The images and genres as well as the structure of the Book of Ezekiel aim to promote symbolic thinking in which the reader receives the word of Yhwh as an engagement with the divine Other. Such engagement fosters a priestly imaginary in which the Judean exiles are called to look beyond appearances as they wrestle with the contradictions generated by the exile and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. The readers, like Ezekiel and the exiles, can become living symbols of Yhwh. Such symbolic thinking will be illustrated through a focus on chaps. 17-20 in which the tensions between individual …

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Dignity: An Islamic Perspective, Zeki Saritoprak Jan 2020

Dignity: An Islamic Perspective, Zeki Saritoprak

2020 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

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Confronting And Condemning “Hard Doctrine,” 1978–2013, Matthew L. Harris Jan 2020

Confronting And Condemning “Hard Doctrine,” 1978–2013, Matthew L. Harris

Mormon Studies Review

Although Spencer W. Kimball’s 1978 revelation in the Salt Lake Temple ended the 126-year-old priesthood and temple ban affecting persons of African descent, questions about racial teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lingered. The revelation, canonized as “Official Declaration 2” in Latter-day Saint scripture, failed to repudiate the theology justifying the ban.1 Some members, consequently, continued to assert that black people were cursed, equating their dark skin with misdeeds they allegedly committed in a pre-earth life.2 Anguished over these microaggressions, black Latter-day Saints petitioned church officials to condemn racism within the church as well as remove …

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Full Issue Jan 2020

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 2020

The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon peoples repeatedly indicated that they were descendants of Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into Egypt by his brothers. The plates of brass that they took with them from Jerusalem c. 600 bce provided them with a version of many Old Testament books and others not included in our Hebrew Bible. Sometime after publishing his translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith undertook an inspired revision of the Bible. The opening chapters of his version of Genesis contain a lot of material not included in the Hebrew Bible. But intriguingly, distinctive phraseology in …

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An Approach To Isaiah Studies, Donald W. Parry Jan 2020

An Approach To Isaiah Studies, Donald W. Parry

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This review makes a case, briefly, for the unmistakable presence of Jesus Christ in Isaiah’s text, which case is based on a corpus linguistic-based description of the Hebrew Bible, equivalent designations of deific names, self-identification declarations by the Lord, and more. And, importantly, one can never set aside the multiple teachings and testimonies of our modern prophets and apostles regarding Isaiah’s prophecies of Jesus Christ. Moreover, in my view, a knowledge of biblical Hebrew helps us to penetrate the very depths and heights of Isaiah’s text.

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An American Indian Language Family With Middle Eastern Loanwords: Responding To A Recent Critique, John Robertson Jan 2020

An American Indian Language Family With Middle Eastern Loanwords: Responding To A Recent Critique, John Robertson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In 2015 Brian Stubbs published a landmark book, demonstrating that Uto-Aztecan, an American Indian language family, contains a vast number of Northwest Semitic and Egyptian loanwords spoken in the first millennium bc. Unlike other similar claims — absurd, eccentric, and without substance — Stubbs’s book is a serious, linguistically based study that deserves serious consideration. In the scholarly world, any claim of Old World influence in the New World languages is met with critical, often hostile skepticism. This essay is written in response to one such criticism.

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Section 2: Nephi The Writer Chapter 7: Nephi Preparing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Section 2: Nephi The Writer Chapter 7: Nephi Preparing, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

We have the Book of Mormon people because of Lehi. Nephi began the tradition that eventually allowed Mormon to create the Book of Mormon. Lehi led his family to the New World, but Nephi defined his descendants as a record-keeping people. The Nephites were a people of the Book both because Nephi (and his brothers) preserved a record-keeping tradition (the brass plates) and because he began a new one after arriving in the New World. Mormon may be most directly responsible for the Book of Mormon, but the records Mormon used (and many of the organizational structures that Mormon used) …

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Chapter 10: Final Considerations About Writing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 10: Final Considerations About Writing, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Neither the extant original manuscript nor the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon have any indication of punctuation. The dictation was written as it was heard, with no attempt to add the literary niceties of paragraphs and punctuation. The nature of the dictation in English cannot tell us whether the Nephite language had visual clues that helped divide ideas. Based on many early texts, it is safest to assume that it did not.

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Chapter 11: Book Of 1 Nephi, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 11: Book Of 1 Nephi, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi begins his book according to traditions he learned in his scribal training.277 He adds a colophon,278 which had two functions: describe the contents of the book and to identify that author. The synoptic header prior to chapter I provides the outline of the events to be covered in Nephi’s first book: the departure of the family from Jerusalem, the journey into the wilderness, the return to Jerusalem for the brass plates, the acquisition of wives from Ishmael’s family, the arrival at Bountiful, the building of a ship, and the journey to the new world. Evidence from Mormon’s use of …

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Becoming Men And Women Of Understanding: Wordplay On Benjamin — An Addendum, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2020

Becoming Men And Women Of Understanding: Wordplay On Benjamin — An Addendum, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Royal and divine sonship/daughterhood (bānîm = “children”/“sons,” bānôt = “daughters”) is a prevalent theme throughout the Book of Mosiah. “Understanding” (Hebrew noun, bînâ or tĕbûnâ; verb, bîn) is also a key theme in that book. The initial juxtaposition of “sons” and “understanding” with the name “Benjamin” (binyāmîn, “son of the right hand”) in Mosiah 1:2–7 suggests the narrator’s association of the underlying terms with the name Benjamin likely on the basis of homophony. King Benjamin repeatedly invokes “understand” in his speech (forms of “understand” were derived from the root *byn in Hebrew; Mosiah 2:9, 40; 4:4; cf. 3:15) — a …

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